Well, last night's game can certainly be described as a frustrating display for most of the Rangers' fans watching. Coming out to a 2-0 early second period lead, the Rangers gave up three straight goals only to tie the game and lose in a shootout. This game was highlighted by the sloppy powerplay unit that is one of the Rangers' biggest flaws. The Rangers failed to capitalize on a 5-minute powerplay that came from Jordan Staal's match penalty when he punched Brandon Prust in the face. The unit looked disorganized and could not set up in the offensive zone. Once they did get set up, it was only for short periods of time and the players digressed to those of the Jagr era as the unit looked for the perfect pass and did not get shots on net. Pittsburgh easily cleared the puck, and at some points one could not tell that the Rangers even had the man advantage. Ryan Callahan's goal came on the powerplay; the result of a Michael Del Zotto point shot that Callahan deflected through the five-hole of Marc-Andre Fleury.
Other than the powerplay being terrible, the defensive unit as a whole was not at the top of their game. Dan Girardi constantly got caught failing to clear the zone, as did Marc Staal. Players were not covered correctly which lead to three straight goals from the Penguins. The team was missing that hungry mindset, and with a 2-0 lead could have put a Crosby-less and Malkin-less Penguins team away for the night. Unfortunately after a fight between the Rangers' Brandon Prust and Pittsburgh's Derek Engelland, New York lost all of the momentum. John Tortorella went back to his ways of changing lines during games, skating Gaborik with Anisimov and Dubinsky, but eventually giving that spot to Callahan. What the coach should have done in my opinion is put Michael Sauer back with Marc Staal, as the unit of Girardi and Staal was not at its best. Of the defensive unit, Sauer and Gilroy had the best games, providing mixes of offense and solid defense. While they were not outstanding, they were better than the rest of the team's defensemen.
Ultimately, last night's attempt to form a cohesive powerplay unit has shown the Rangers' biggest weaknesses going forward. The Rangers need one thing that they have missed since Ales Kotalik fell out of favor last season, and that is a big shot from the point on the powerplay. Currently, Marc Staal has the most powerful slapshot on the team, and as much as we all love Marc Staal, that isn't a good sign. There are several options available at the trade deadline that could interest both Glen Sather and Rangers fans hoping to make a playoff run. One option is the oft-injured Florida captain Bryan McCabe. Aside from being a physical presence that the Rangers also need, he has a heavy point shot and is good on the offensive side of the puck, as well as being an unrestricted free agent after this season. Another player who is a little less touted is Ottawa defenseman Filip Kuba. He is not as skilled as McCabe, but comes with another year on his deal at a smaller cap hit. He could probably be had for less, as the Ottawa Senators are slowly diving below the New Jersey Devils in the standings. Other names of interest could be Calgary's Anton Babchuk, Edmonton's Kurtis Foster, and Toronto's Francois Beauchemin.
While some Rangers fans want to make a run for the cup at every hint of making the playoffs, I believe that we should not send away valuable assets such as picks or prospects for rental players at this time. Instead of messing up the chemistry that this team has developed since the early going, let them go to the playoffs and gain vital experience. Rookies Derek Stepan, Mats Zuccarello, Ryan McDonagh, Michael Sauer and AHL vet turned 4th line center Kris Newbury have never been to the playoffs, nor has Michael Del Zotto nor Matt Gilroy. We still feature a young team that can learn from the experience of a playoff run. Those argue that we are missing out on Gaborik and Lundqvist's primes don't realize that they will both only be 29 years old next season, and the window is still there if we add a key piece over the summer without giving up assets.
Brad Richards is the most talked about free agent target in New York, being that he can be the true #1 center that this team has dreamt of since the Jagr era, and reuniting him with coach John Tortorella from their cup winning days in Tampa Bay. If we do sign Richards, or any center for that matter, one of Artem Anisimov, Derek Stepan and Brian Boyle must switch to the wing. All three are much too valuable to this team to only play fourth line minutes. Another route would be to try and sign a #1 left wing, but that ship may have sailed this past offseason with the utter failure of Alex Frolov. With Alex Semin off of the table thanks to a new extension with the Capitals, players like Alex Tanguay, Simon Gagne, Justin Williams, Tomas Fleischmann, Scotty Upshall, Jussi Jokinen and Ville Leino will be the premier forwards available. None of these players are first line players, and are more of Tier II free agents. If the Rangers don't sign Brad Richards, it will be hard to find true compliments for Marian Gaborik in free agency.
These next few weeks will prove to be interesting for Rangers fans. Will Glen Sather do what he did last year at the deadline, that is stand his ground and move forward confidently with his team? Or will he go out and add pieces for the playoffs in the hope of making a playoff run after missing out last year for the first time since the lockout? Only Glen Sather knows the answer to that, and time will truly tell what is going to happen with the roster of the New York Rangers.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
And then there were some disappointments
This year has had many ups for the Rangers so far, but year in and year out, every team has it's disappointments. There have been several so far for the Rangers, and I'm going to outline them in the coming paragraphs. Some players have been injured; some just didn't perform. Some didn't perform and now are injured, or vice versa. There have been a few cases where players have proved to ultimately not fulfill the potential that was there when the season began.
Let's get the hardest one out of the way, and that is captain Chris Drury. Drury looked good early in the preseason during training camp, and it was believed that he could be the leader the team needed and also find his scoring touch that was utterly lacking last year. Unfortunately, Drury broke his finger blocking a shot, and came back to play the home opener only to break the finger again and miss a significant chunk of the season. When Drury came back, the Rangers had their top three centers established, as Artem Anisimov, Derek Stepan and Brian Boyle were contributing to the team both offensively and defensively. Drury was relegated to fourth line duty with a host of linemates, and could just never get his game going. Currently, Drury sits with no goals and four assists on the season. To put that in perspective, Henrik Lundqvist has that same offensive stat line. It has been a season to forget for the captain, though he is still contributing defensively at even strength and on the penalty kill. Rumors have made the rounds that the Rangers would buy Drury out over the summer, saving about half of his salary against the cap next season, and only paying around $1.6 million in 2012-13 against the salary cap. It remains to be seen if Drury can ever turn into the two-way player that he once was early in his New York Rangers career and before that in Buffalo, but there is hope among fans that Drury can hit his stride again in the future, as he has had a good NHL career. He is still respected as the captain of the team in the locker room, but a team can only succeed so much with a $7 million fourth line center.
A low risk/high reward signing close to the start of training camp, Alex Frolov had failed to live up to expectations before tearing his ACL and ending his season. Frolov had seen previous success with the LA Kings, including two seasons with over 30 goals. Signed for one year and $3 million, Frolov had expectations to mesh with Marian Gaborik on the first line, or to at least provide some secondary scoring for a club that has lacked just that in recent years. Of course, the team has been scoring by committee this season but Frolov has not been a part of that. His numbers for the season are seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in 43 games before his injury. Made infamous for his constant wraparound attempts, Frolov just could not rekindle the play that made him successful in years past. An unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, I highly doubt that Frolov will be brought back next season. He may return home to his native Russia to play in the KHL, as he had deals to return on the table during this past off-season as well.
Derek Boogaard was given probably the most ludicrous contract of the off-season, coming in at four years at $1.65 million per season. This for a player that had two career goals coming into the season and averaged just over four minutes of ice time per game with the Minnesota Wild last year, when he even got to dress for games. Boogaard played in a total of 22 games with New York, scoring his third career goal. That is about the extent of the good from Boogaard for this season, as the rest has been disappointing to say the least. Boogaard is currently out of the Rangers lineup with a shoulder injury and post concussion symptoms, and it is doubtful that he will play again this year. When he was healthy, he was not an imposing player to compete against, and could not be counted on to take a regular shift. One of the most inexplicable free agents to be signed by Glen Sather, it is further proof that the less we do during the summer, the better. Free agent signings over long terms for numbers that are too high have been killing this team, and Boogaard's is no exception.
Sean Avery has been an interesting case this season, and it is hard to consider a player with 18 assists on the year to be struggling. Unfortunately, Avery has been one of the most inconsistent players for the Rangers this year, registering ten of his 18 assists in four games and only scoring two goals. He has also not played with the edge and agitating style that we are so used to seeing from Sean Avery. Maybe coach John Tortorella has finally tamed the wild spirit that is Avery, but it has not worked out well for him as he is not as effective as he used to be when originally acquired. It remains to be seen if Sean can start to contribute more on a consistent basis, as even six goals in the last thirty games would be a welcome contribution to a team that is looking for scoring up and down the lineup. Signed through next season at a reasonable cap hit under $2 million, Avery will look to bounce back next season once all is said and done.
In my next post, I'll talk about moves that I think the Rangers need to make to take the next step to be a playoff contender. Whether those moves occur at the trade deadline or over the summer will be decided over the next few weeks, and there are several interesting names out there to significantly help this team. AW over and out.
Let's get the hardest one out of the way, and that is captain Chris Drury. Drury looked good early in the preseason during training camp, and it was believed that he could be the leader the team needed and also find his scoring touch that was utterly lacking last year. Unfortunately, Drury broke his finger blocking a shot, and came back to play the home opener only to break the finger again and miss a significant chunk of the season. When Drury came back, the Rangers had their top three centers established, as Artem Anisimov, Derek Stepan and Brian Boyle were contributing to the team both offensively and defensively. Drury was relegated to fourth line duty with a host of linemates, and could just never get his game going. Currently, Drury sits with no goals and four assists on the season. To put that in perspective, Henrik Lundqvist has that same offensive stat line. It has been a season to forget for the captain, though he is still contributing defensively at even strength and on the penalty kill. Rumors have made the rounds that the Rangers would buy Drury out over the summer, saving about half of his salary against the cap next season, and only paying around $1.6 million in 2012-13 against the salary cap. It remains to be seen if Drury can ever turn into the two-way player that he once was early in his New York Rangers career and before that in Buffalo, but there is hope among fans that Drury can hit his stride again in the future, as he has had a good NHL career. He is still respected as the captain of the team in the locker room, but a team can only succeed so much with a $7 million fourth line center.
A low risk/high reward signing close to the start of training camp, Alex Frolov had failed to live up to expectations before tearing his ACL and ending his season. Frolov had seen previous success with the LA Kings, including two seasons with over 30 goals. Signed for one year and $3 million, Frolov had expectations to mesh with Marian Gaborik on the first line, or to at least provide some secondary scoring for a club that has lacked just that in recent years. Of course, the team has been scoring by committee this season but Frolov has not been a part of that. His numbers for the season are seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in 43 games before his injury. Made infamous for his constant wraparound attempts, Frolov just could not rekindle the play that made him successful in years past. An unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, I highly doubt that Frolov will be brought back next season. He may return home to his native Russia to play in the KHL, as he had deals to return on the table during this past off-season as well.
Derek Boogaard was given probably the most ludicrous contract of the off-season, coming in at four years at $1.65 million per season. This for a player that had two career goals coming into the season and averaged just over four minutes of ice time per game with the Minnesota Wild last year, when he even got to dress for games. Boogaard played in a total of 22 games with New York, scoring his third career goal. That is about the extent of the good from Boogaard for this season, as the rest has been disappointing to say the least. Boogaard is currently out of the Rangers lineup with a shoulder injury and post concussion symptoms, and it is doubtful that he will play again this year. When he was healthy, he was not an imposing player to compete against, and could not be counted on to take a regular shift. One of the most inexplicable free agents to be signed by Glen Sather, it is further proof that the less we do during the summer, the better. Free agent signings over long terms for numbers that are too high have been killing this team, and Boogaard's is no exception.
Sean Avery has been an interesting case this season, and it is hard to consider a player with 18 assists on the year to be struggling. Unfortunately, Avery has been one of the most inconsistent players for the Rangers this year, registering ten of his 18 assists in four games and only scoring two goals. He has also not played with the edge and agitating style that we are so used to seeing from Sean Avery. Maybe coach John Tortorella has finally tamed the wild spirit that is Avery, but it has not worked out well for him as he is not as effective as he used to be when originally acquired. It remains to be seen if Sean can start to contribute more on a consistent basis, as even six goals in the last thirty games would be a welcome contribution to a team that is looking for scoring up and down the lineup. Signed through next season at a reasonable cap hit under $2 million, Avery will look to bounce back next season once all is said and done.
In my next post, I'll talk about moves that I think the Rangers need to make to take the next step to be a playoff contender. Whether those moves occur at the trade deadline or over the summer will be decided over the next few weeks, and there are several interesting names out there to significantly help this team. AW over and out.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Is the All-Star game really a good idea?
With the NHL SuperSkills competition set for tonight and the actual game set for tomorrow, I want to talk a little bit about the usefulness of the All-Star game itself. Does it have a purpose? Is it good to have it during the season? Should there be other factors linked with the game? Well, let's talk about it.
First of all, the All-Star game did something quite interesting this year, which was to make the format of selecting teams a fantasy mock draft. Two teams, lead by Nicklas Lidstrom and Eric Staal, selected players for their team round by round. This was much more interesting than the old East vs. West format, yet still has some problems. Everyone is going to be able to make a mockery of Phil Kessel, the last pick in the draft. Of course for being that pick he receives a new car (does he really need one with his nice fat salary in Toronto?) and a $20,000 donation to charity. Another issue was trying to draft to loyalties, as Team Staal drafted Cam Ward, Jeff Skinner and Eric's younger brother Marc. Team Lidstrom drafted Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and and ex-Blackhawk Dustin Byfuglien. Obviously the Raleigh natives will be rooting for Team Staal's three featured Hurricanes' players, which leads to a rather large bias for the game. Is that bad? I don't think so. It's good for fans to support one team, and maybe if fans from other cities such as Chicago make it to the game they will also know who to root for.
One of the most interesting story-lines of this year's All-Star game will be the Sedin vs. Sedin matchup. The premier set of twins in the NHL (Joel Lundqvist was obviously not available) will play against each other for the first time ever in their careers. This will be interesting to watch, as Henrik will have to prove he can set up players that aren't his brother and Daniel will have to receive and score on passes from someone other than his usual center. What would be even more hilarious was if they dropped the gloves against each other. Usually, physical play and fighting is not one of the skills on display at the All-Star game, but it would add for an interesting twist that this game so desperately needs.
That leads to me another point that I want to talk about, and that is the point of the All-Star game. It doesn't determine home ice for the Stanley Cup Finals like in the MLB's all-star game, and it is about as meaningless as the Pro Bowl, except that game happens once everything else is over after the Superbowl. There are two ideas that I want to suggest to the League, even though they obviously won't listen to me. I wonder why... anyway here we go.
The first idea is to make the All-Star game mean something. Let it determine home ice advantage in the Finals. Let it mean something to the players, instead of being a waste of time for players that rather use the five day break to rest during a long and difficult season. If the game determined home ice advantage then players would care more, especially those playing for teams such as the Canucks (well that would make it complicated for the Sedins, now wouldn't it?), the Flyers, the Blackhawks, the Lightning...yeah just about every team represented would care. It would make for a much more interesting game if the players actually had a reason to perform at their best.
The second idea I have for the All-Star game is to make it after the season, like the NFL's Pro Bowl. This isn't as good of an idea for a sport that is trying to build it's fan base, but if the game is not going to mean something then why not save it for after the season so as to not overwork the stars of the league in a game that doesn't contribute to much during the season. I know that Gary Bettman would never do this, as revenue from the All-Star game's advertising and sponsorships would be much lower and hurt the league. They might even lose enough money that the Phoenix Coyotes might just have to move back up to Canada. Now would that be such a bad thing?
Tell what you think down in the comments section below. Do you have any ideas of your own? Do you agree? Disagree? Really enjoy ice cream cake? Well if any of those apply please let me know. AW, over and out.
First of all, the All-Star game did something quite interesting this year, which was to make the format of selecting teams a fantasy mock draft. Two teams, lead by Nicklas Lidstrom and Eric Staal, selected players for their team round by round. This was much more interesting than the old East vs. West format, yet still has some problems. Everyone is going to be able to make a mockery of Phil Kessel, the last pick in the draft. Of course for being that pick he receives a new car (does he really need one with his nice fat salary in Toronto?) and a $20,000 donation to charity. Another issue was trying to draft to loyalties, as Team Staal drafted Cam Ward, Jeff Skinner and Eric's younger brother Marc. Team Lidstrom drafted Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and and ex-Blackhawk Dustin Byfuglien. Obviously the Raleigh natives will be rooting for Team Staal's three featured Hurricanes' players, which leads to a rather large bias for the game. Is that bad? I don't think so. It's good for fans to support one team, and maybe if fans from other cities such as Chicago make it to the game they will also know who to root for.
One of the most interesting story-lines of this year's All-Star game will be the Sedin vs. Sedin matchup. The premier set of twins in the NHL (Joel Lundqvist was obviously not available) will play against each other for the first time ever in their careers. This will be interesting to watch, as Henrik will have to prove he can set up players that aren't his brother and Daniel will have to receive and score on passes from someone other than his usual center. What would be even more hilarious was if they dropped the gloves against each other. Usually, physical play and fighting is not one of the skills on display at the All-Star game, but it would add for an interesting twist that this game so desperately needs.
That leads to me another point that I want to talk about, and that is the point of the All-Star game. It doesn't determine home ice for the Stanley Cup Finals like in the MLB's all-star game, and it is about as meaningless as the Pro Bowl, except that game happens once everything else is over after the Superbowl. There are two ideas that I want to suggest to the League, even though they obviously won't listen to me. I wonder why... anyway here we go.
The first idea is to make the All-Star game mean something. Let it determine home ice advantage in the Finals. Let it mean something to the players, instead of being a waste of time for players that rather use the five day break to rest during a long and difficult season. If the game determined home ice advantage then players would care more, especially those playing for teams such as the Canucks (well that would make it complicated for the Sedins, now wouldn't it?), the Flyers, the Blackhawks, the Lightning...yeah just about every team represented would care. It would make for a much more interesting game if the players actually had a reason to perform at their best.
The second idea I have for the All-Star game is to make it after the season, like the NFL's Pro Bowl. This isn't as good of an idea for a sport that is trying to build it's fan base, but if the game is not going to mean something then why not save it for after the season so as to not overwork the stars of the league in a game that doesn't contribute to much during the season. I know that Gary Bettman would never do this, as revenue from the All-Star game's advertising and sponsorships would be much lower and hurt the league. They might even lose enough money that the Phoenix Coyotes might just have to move back up to Canada. Now would that be such a bad thing?
Tell what you think down in the comments section below. Do you have any ideas of your own? Do you agree? Disagree? Really enjoy ice cream cake? Well if any of those apply please let me know. AW, over and out.
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